PRESS RELEASE: EPIC Publishes New Report Sounding the Alarm on Spyware, Highly Intrusive Phone Surveillance Technology  

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) published The Fight to Protect Our Phones: A Multi-Prong Approach to Spyware Reform, a report authored by EPIC Counsel Maria Villegas Bravo and EPIC Executive Director Alan Butler.  

The report shines a light on the threats posed by the remote deployment of spyware by government actors, without user knowledge, to facilitate complete access to and control of an infected device. This private investigator in your pocket can vacuum up all the existing information on your phone as well as engage in ongoing monitoring campaigns, turning microphones and cameras on at will.  

“Our phones serve as the ideal surveillance target, combining data from our personal, professional, and internal lives. Government spyware use targeting these devices not only violates victims’ Constitutional rights, but their livelihoods, safety, and sense of security,” said Maria Villegas Bravo, EPIC Counsel and report co-author. “The proliferation of spyware also acts as a corrosive force, eroding our national security and trust in critical infrastructure.”   

This report serves as a background primer on government surveillance of individuals through the deployment of spyware. It provides both a strategic assessment of the accountability levers for spyware under current laws and recommendations for future improvements. EPIC’s goal is to clearly articulate the risks that government use of spyware poses to fundamental rights and to focus attention on how to mitigate these risks. At the end of the report, EPIC recommends a full prohibition on the acquisition and use of spyware by state government entities. 

“The use of spyware as an unlimited phone surveillance tool flies in the face of decades of safeguards under the Wiretap Act. The utter lack of transparency into how this technology is being acquired and deployed is concerning, pointing to circumvention of essential privacy protections and warrant requirements,” said Alan Butler, EPIC Executive Director and report co-author.  

This report is being published as ICE reactivates a 2024 contract with Paragon Solutions and infamous spyware developer NSO Group ramps ups its efforts to remove the sanctions placed on it that were “based on evidence that [this entity] developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments that used these tools to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers.”  

“The proliferation of spyware should be a five-alarm fire to surveillance reform advocates. The administration is ramping up its efforts to surveil vulnerable populations at an unprecedented scale. This level of access to individuals’ thoughts and lives cannot go on unregulated,” said Jeramie Scott, Director of EPIC’s Surveillance Oversight Program. “This report details exactly why the U.S. government has no business acquiring and deploying spyware.”  

We all share a fundamental right to privacy. Spyware-enabled surveillance is not inevitable, and EPIC’s report outlines the tools available to stop this encroachment into our devices and lives. Please feel free to reach out at [email protected].  

Read the report here.  

### 

ABOUT EPIC  

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) was established in 1994 to protect privacy, freedom of expression, and democratic values in the information age. Our mission is to secure the fundamental right to privacy in the digital age for all people through advocacy, research, and litigation.